The Cartographer's Union is an organization dedicated to charting star systems in human space. Because stations are built and destroyed constantly, and trade routes move with orbits, having a constant, up-to-date map of systems can be a very lucrative business.

System map ROMs access central cartography libraries, but these libraries are often incomplete. Shipping companies and the Commonwealth militia are particularly interested in completing their maps.

Joining the union equips you with star charting equipment, which increases scanning range slightly and keeps a record of what you've charted. An object counts as charted if you recon it (see it on screen) or an explorer auton discovers it. Stargates and enemy stations are the most valuable targets, but you also receive some money for exploring any grid space on the system map (outside the grid you are not paid unless you discover a station).

You will be paid out if you dock with a Union station and have chart data. The value of your data increases with system level.

Would claiming that you know where a station is because it appeared in your mind during prayer be sufficiently rigorous for the Cartographer's union?

Good point! Probably not, because there would be other metrics that the union would be interested in aside from just its position. Plus, consider the case of the Anarchist chimeras - Nobody knew it was an infected station until someone went out and looked, so maybe there's other cases where a visual sighting is important.

Although, I would like the think this would be a good thing to use in an adventure other than D&O somewhere down the line, so maybe it's a non-issue. But, I think having to recon the station is a good idea in case the player gets their hands on an "obsolete" map or something.

I like it. Would it be possible to pay more for logically 'harder' to recon stations, such as those that spawn outside of a planet or asteroid belt, or inside of a nebula?

Sure can - When a station is reconned, we can use sysGetEnvironment to determine if the station is in a nebula (or otherwise). Stations in the void would be a little bit trickier though. When they're reconned, we can use sysFindObject to see where the nearest planet or asteroid is, and if the station is more than 100 light seconds away then there should be some sort of bonus. It should check distance to the star as well anyway, and pay more for outer-system stations.